Who killed Jigeesha, and why?

Delhi police on Tuesday claimed that the leader of the gang that abducted and murdered Jigeesha Ghosh last Wednesday was a thief involved in at least 12 cases of car theft in the south Delhi police district, reports Vijaita Singh.

Delhi police on Tuesday claimed that the leader of the gang that abducted and murdered Jigeesha Ghosh last Wednesday was a thief involved in at least 12 cases of car theft in the south Delhi police district.

Police sources also said the accused, Ravi Kapoor, was a police informer in another police district.

Kapoor allegedly abducted Ghosh in a silver-grey Santro car bearing a Haryana registration along with three accomplices — Amit Kumar Shukla, Baljeet Malik alias Poppy and Ajay Kumar. All the accused are in their mid-20s.

To avoid police checks, the gang used to frequent the Vasant Vihar-Vasant Kunj stretch in stolen cars, with beacon lights fixed atop and stickers of judges, policemen and even news channels pasted on the windshields.

The abduction

The office cab dropped Ghosh — operations manager with Hewitt Associates in Noida — at her colony gate around 4.30 am last Wednesday. She was talking on the phone, assisting a colleague sort out a ‘technical problem’ in office.

Ghosh did not go up to her first floor flat as the mobile signal was not strong there.

At this point, the four accused, who were returning drunk from a late night party, spotted Ghosh. Kapoor and Malik called out to her on the pretext of finding out an address, pulled her inside the car and drove off towards Mahipalpur.

The murder

On the way, the accused forced Ghosh to divulge her ATM card’s personal identification number (PIN) and withdrew altogether Rs 25,000 from her account. After operating Ghosh’s account, the accused knew that she had a balance exceeding Rs 8 lakh.

All this while, Ghosh pleaded with them to let her go. She told them that her elderly parents were alone at home and asked them to take all her money and belongings, but to no avail.

“After driving for an hour, Kapoor decided to kill her, as he feared that she could recognise them later. After dumping her body in Faridabad, all four went to Sarojini Nagar market and purchased shoes, sunglasses, a TV set and CDs worth Rs 45,000 with her card,” said HGS Dhaliwal, deputy commissioner of police (south).